Robert C. McLeod

The Member raises a good point and it’s a concern that’s shared across the Northwest Territories, especially in some of the smaller communities. A lot of the LHOs have zero tolerance, where if they know that you’re carrying out illegal activities, then it’s within their power to do something about it. But part of the problem is getting people to come forward and identifying them, because there’s a process that you have to go through. I think that’s the toughest part, because you get calls and you know who’s doing illegal activities. Some of it could get tied up in the law’s hands, and if you...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This particular figure is not with another department. It was one-time funding for the Housing Corporation. It’s still in our department. We are working with communities, some of the development corporations and that, and I think we had that discussion during the briefing. The money was a one-time figure and it’s declining now and not part of this budget.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I may have to have a discussion with the Member, but my understanding is there is still an LHO in Tsiigehtchic with a manager and a maintenance foreman and an apprentice, I believe. So my understanding is there’s still an LHO in Tsiigehtchic, but I’d have to confirm that and I will follow it up with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member raised a few points there. I think he’s saying that because of these four programs it’s his opinion that our core need went up based on…(inaudible)…and the four programs cover just about everything. Even the overall houses that need repair affect our core need. That’s factored into our core need, public housing units. So that’s factored in and I think we’ve talked about the number of units that are under repair. That would obviously affect our core need.

I think in response to Mr. Krutko’s question before, or Mr. Bromley, we have 150 units that are under repair...

There’s always been within the LHOs a high degree of skills. The LHO managers are very well qualified. We have tenant relations officers that have been with the LHO for years and so the capacity at the local level, which has always been very good, continues to get better. We continue to work with the LHOs to provide training for them and just assisting them in any way possible so that they’re able to do their job much better, but the LHOs are usually a long serving group and they’re usually within the organization for years. So they have good understanding of how the system works and they’re...

I am very familiar with the SHAG program where people harvested their own logs. At that time, the package I think was only $30,000 and that got you your windows, doors and everything else, but the bulk of the work and I know people that did all the work. The Member I think was also referring to the HAP program, which was a very successful program where materials were provided to individuals that qualified and then they supplied the labour. It started going to where everything was being supplied, but it was a very successful program.

One of the things that we are seeing today through the CARE...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The waiting list now, I think the Member quoted 149, it’s down to 109 currently. It’s down to 109. So some people have been accommodated. We do have a lot of lease commitments in the city. The public housing units, this is basically what we have now. Other than putting new houses on the ground or finding some new lease commitments this is going to be an issue. There’s a waiting list for pretty well all of the communities. This is one that we need to address and if it means... I think the city has new public housing units coming this year, so there will be some new...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome my constituency assistant, Leah Ipana, to the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There were a wide range of comments that were brought up and obviously housing is an issue that’s felt very strongly about in the communities.

Mr. Menicoche was speaking about the mould in some of the units. Most of the technical staff in the regions now do have mould remediation training, so they’re getting educated on how to deal with the mould issue.

The comments made by Mr. Hawkins on the barrier-free units, he talked about a strategy but a strategy is a report and we realize that we have probably 300 barrier-free units in our public housing inventory. For those...